When your employer ignored broken equipment or pushed you to work faster than was safe, a workers' comp check that covers only part of your paycheck can leave you and your family financially strained. Many injured workers in that position want to know whether they can sue their employer for a work injury in California.
In most cases, California law requires you to bring claims against your employer through workers' compensation instead of a lawsuit. The law does make a few exceptions, though. You may also have a separate claim against someone outside your company, such as a careless driver, and that claim can pay for losses workers' comp doesn't cover, like pain and suffering.
Banderas Law offers a Free Case Evaluation in English or Spanish, and our team can help you identify every claim available to you. Call (909) 600-0000 or contact us online whenever you're ready to talk.
Can I Sue My Employer if I Get Hurt at Work in California?
Most California workers can't sue their employer for a work injury because workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy. Narrow exceptions apply, such as an assault by your employer or an employer with no workers' comp insurance. If someone outside your company caused the injury, such as a careless driver, you can also file a personal injury claim against that third party.
How California Law Treats Work Injury Lawsuits
These rules decide whether a California worker can take a work injury to civil court:
- Workers' compensation is generally the exclusive remedy against a California employer for a work injury, regardless of who caused it.
- California allows a lawsuit against an employer in a few narrow situations, including a willful physical assault and fraudulent concealment that worsens an injury.
- A worker whose employer illegally failed to carry workers' comp insurance can sue that employer, and the law presumes the employer was negligent.
- An injured worker can collect workers' comp and also sue a third party whose carelessness caused the injury.
- The employer's insurer can recover the workers' comp benefits it paid out of a third-party recovery.
Why Can't You Usually Sue Your Employer for a Work Injury?
You can't normally sue your employer for a work injury because California makes workers' compensation the exclusive remedy against an employer once the conditions for comp coverage are met. In exchange, you receive benefits without proving anyone did anything wrong.
That trade has real costs for injured workers. The comparison below shows what each type of claim provides:
| Issue | Workers' Comp Claim | Personal Injury Lawsuit |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of fault | Not required; benefits are paid regardless of who caused the injury | You must prove someone else was negligent |
| Pain and suffering | Not paid | Recoverable |
| Lost income | Two-thirds of your average weekly wage, within state limits | Full lost earnings, past and future |
| Who decides a dispute | A workers' compensation judge | A judge or jury in civil court |
| Usual filing deadline | Generally, one year from the injury to file with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board | Generally, two years from the injury |
Those limits explain why so many injured workers ask about suing. Knowing what workers' comp covers and what it excludes helps a lawyer decide where else to seek compensation.
Why Employer Negligence Isn't Enough
Carelessness by your employer, even serious carelessness, generally stays inside the workers' comp system. A broken pallet jack, a skipped safety training, or an understaffed shift does not, on its own, allow a lawsuit against the employer.
When Serious Misconduct Raises Your Benefits
California law increases your workers' comp benefits by one-half when your injury results from the serious and willful misconduct of your employer, a managing representative, or a company executive. Proving that misconduct generally takes evidence that the employer:
- Knew about a dangerous condition
- Knew the condition would probably cause serious injury
- Chose not to correct it
A lawyer builds that evidence inside your comp case, since the increase doesn't come automatically.
When Can You Sue Your Employer in California?
You can sue your employer in California only in a handful of narrow situations the Labor Code spells out. Each one requires conduct far beyond an ordinary workplace accident.
Your Employer Physically Assaulted You
A willful physical assault by your employer allows a lawsuit for damages. The key word is willful: the employer has to have intended the attack, not simply allowed an unsafe condition to exist.
Your Employer Hid Your Injury and It Got Worse
If your employer knew about your injury and its connection to your job, concealed that information, and your condition worsened as a result, you can sue for the harm the concealment caused. For example, an employer that learns from workplace testing that your job damaged your lungs and keeps the results from you could face this claim.
Damages in this kind of lawsuit cover the aggravation, not the original injury, and workers' comp still handles the injury itself.
Your Employer Had No Workers' Comp Insurance
California requires nearly every employer to carry workers' comp coverage. When an employer illegally goes without it, you can sue that employer in civil court, and the law presumes the employer's negligence caused your injury.
In that lawsuit, the uninsured employer loses defenses it could otherwise raise. It can't argue that:
- You were partly at fault for the injury
- You accepted the risk of the job
- A coworker's carelessness caused the injury
Separately, the state's Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund can pay awarded workers' comp benefits when an uninsured employer doesn't.
Your Employer Removed a Power Press Guard
In manufacturing settings, a worker injured by a power press can sue the employer when the employer knowingly removed, or failed to install, a required point-of-operation guard. The employer must have specifically authorized removing the guard or leaving it off, knowing that doing so made serious injury or death likely.
Who Else Can You Sue for a Work Injury in California?
You can sue a person or company outside your workplace whose carelessness caused your work injury, and you keep your workers' comp benefits while that third-party work injury claim moves forward. Common third parties include:
- A driver, rideshare company, or trucking company responsible for a collision while you were working
- A property owner or manager whose dangerous stairs, flooring, or loading dock injured you at a customer's location
- A dog owner whose dog bit you on a delivery route or a home service call
- A public agency responsible for a dangerous road or public property, which carries a much shorter claim deadline
A third-party claim can include the full range of personal injury damages, including pain and suffering and the share of your wages workers' comp doesn't replace.
When the Other Side Blames You
Fault doesn't affect workers' comp, but it does affect a third-party claim. California's pure comparative fault rule reduces your compensation by your share of the blame, so a driver's insurer may argue you were speeding or distracted.
Many people handling a claim alone accept the insurer's fault percentage without realizing they can challenge it. A work injury attorney gathers evidence, such as what the other driver could see and when, so the percentage reflects what actually happened.
How Workers' Comp and a Third-Party Claim Fit Together
Your employer's workers' comp insurer can claim repayment of the benefits it paid out of your third-party recovery. California law sets the order of payment from a judgment:
- Court costs and attorney fees are paid first.
- The employer or its insurer is reimbursed for the comp benefits it paid.
- You receive the remainder.
The insurer can also take a credit against your future comp benefits, up to the amount you keep from the third-party case.
Suppose the insurer paid $30,000 in medical care and wage benefits before your case against an at-fault driver settles. The insurer can seek that $30,000 back from the settlement, which is why a lawyer negotiates the repayment claim as part of resolving the case.
Two claims, two insurers, and two sets of deadlines can turn a strong case into a confusing one.
Our Ontario workers' compensation lawyers at Banderas Law handle the comp claim and the third-party case together, and our car accident lawyers step in when a crash on the job caused your injury. Call (909) 600-0000 for a Free Case Evaluation in English or Spanish.
How Can You Protect a Third-Party Claim While Workers' Comp Pays?
Protecting a third-party claim starts with legal help and consistent medical care. If no doctor has examined you since the injury, an exam soon creates a record that links your condition to the incident. These steps help keep both claims on track:
- Talk with a work injury lawyer before you speak with the at-fault party's insurance company, because anything you say can affect fault and damages.
- Keep every medical appointment, since missed visits give both insurers a reason to say you recovered.
- Keep a written or video journal of your pain and the activities you can't do. Workers' comp doesn't pay for pain and suffering, but a third-party claim does, and your journal helps prove it.
- Let your lawyer review any workers' comp settlement before you sign, because its terms can affect how much of a third-party recovery you keep.
A workplace injury lawyer also tracks the different deadlines for each claim and coordinates the evidence, so one case doesn't undercut the other.
California Work Injury Lawsuit Questions Answered by Injury Attorneys
These questions often come up once an injured worker learns that workers' comp may not be the only option.
Can I sue a coworker who caused my injury in California?
You generally can't sue a coworker for a California work injury, because workers' comp also protects fellow employees. The exceptions are an injury caused by a coworker's willful and unprovoked physical act of aggression and an injury caused by a coworker's intoxication.
Can an independent contractor sue for a work injury in California?
A true independent contractor in California usually isn't covered by workers' comp and may be able to pursue a negligence claim against whoever caused the injury. California's ABC test generally presumes a worker is an employee unless the hiring business proves all three parts of the test, so many workers labeled as contractors actually qualify for workers' comp.
Can I sue the workers' comp insurance company for delaying my benefits?
You generally can't sue a California workers' comp insurer in civil court for delaying or denying benefits, because the California Supreme Court has held that the workers' comp system covers disputes over coverage and payment. Instead, a workers' comp judge can increase an unreasonably delayed or refused payment by up to 25%, capped at $10,000, and a workers' comp lawyer can pursue that penalty for you.
How long do I have to sue a third party for a work injury in California?
Most California personal injury lawsuits against a third party must be filed within two years of the injury, while a claim against a government agency has a much shorter deadline, generally six months. The separate workers' comp case generally must be filed with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board within one year.
Can my family sue if a loved one dies from a work injury in California?
A California family usually receives workers' comp death benefits rather than suing the employer, although the same narrow exceptions, such as an uninsured employer, still apply to surviving dependents. No amount of money can ease the loss of a loved one, but a wrongful death claim against a negligent third party can help a family cover the income and support that are gone.
Your Next Step After a Work Injury
Workers' comp keeps benefits coming after a job injury, but it doesn't cover everything a serious injury takes from you. At Banderas Law, our Ontario workers' compensation lawyers look at the whole picture: the comp claim, any exception that allows a lawsuit, and every outside party whose carelessness played a part.
We don't just handle cases. We fight for your future.
We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay nothing up front, and we get paid only if we successfully resolve your case. Our team speaks English and Spanish. Language is never a barrier to high-quality legal representation.
Take the first step toward justice with a Free Case Evaluation. Call (909) 600-0000 or contact us online to talk with our Ontario team about your work injury.